The Holy Innocents

The Holy Innocents – December 28th

When Jesus was born in Bethlehem, the Wise Men came from the East to worship Him. They went to Herod, the King, to ask him where they might find the new-born King of the Jews, the Savior. Herod was a cruel, clever tyrant, and when he heard these Wise Men speak of a newborn King, he began to worry about losing his throne. But he did not let the Wise Men know what he was thinking. He called in the chief priests and asked them where the Bible says the Messias was to be born. They answered that the Messias was to be born in Bethlehem.

“Go and find out about this child,” the wicked King said to the Wise Men. “When you have found out where He is, come and tell me, that I, too, may go and worship Him.” The Wise Men went on their way, and they found Jesus, the Messias, with Mary and Joseph. When they had adored Him and given Him their gifts, they were warned in their sleep not to go back to Herod. And an angel came to tell St. Joseph to take Mary and Baby Jesus into Egypt. In this way, God spoiled the murderous plans of Herod concerning the Divine Child.

When Herod realized that the Wise Men had not come back to him, he became furious. Already, he was an evil, violent man, and now the fear of losing his throne made him worse. He sent his soldiers to kill the boy babies of Bethlehem, in the hope of killing the Messias, too! The soldiers carried out the bloody order, and there was great sorrow in the little town of Bethlehem, as mothers wept over their murdered babies.

These little children are honored today by the Church as martyrs. They are called the Holy Innocents.

Let us always respect little children. They are innocent and pleasing to God. Let us never do or say anything which could give bad example to them.

Feast of All Souls Day

Feast of All Souls Day

– November 2nd
(On November 3, if the 2nd is a Sunday)

There is a natural close connexion between the feast of All Saints and the thought of the holy souls who are for ever securely established in grace and will one day enter heaven, but are detained in Purgatory to expiate their venial sins or suffer the temporal punishment due to sin. These other members of the Communion of Saints, the Church Suffering, therefore, fill the thought of the Church Militant on the morrow of her celebration of the glory of the Church Triumphant. “On this day”, says the Roman Martyrology, “the commemoration of all the faithful departed, in which their common loving Mother the Church, after celebrating with due praise all her children already in heaven, strives by her powerful intercession with Christ, her Lord and Spouse, to aid all those who are still suffering in Purgatory to come as soon as possible to the company of the inhabitants of heaven”. There is no more striking expression than this of the mysterious unity between the Church Triumphant, the Church Militant and the Church Suffering, no more effective means of fulfilling the duty of both justice and charity incumbent on every Christian through his membership of Christ’s mystical Body. There is no more consoling truth than the Communion of Saints; the fact that the merits and prayers of each one are able to help all; once this life is over, God’s justice applies in all its strictness, but the Church is able to join her prayer with that of the Saints in heaven; she can supply what is wanting to the souls in Purgatory by means of Holy Mass, indulgences and the alms and sacrifices of her children, offering to God on their behalf Christ’s infinite merits in his Passion and in his members. The sacrifice of Calvary, continued on the altar, is the centre of the liturgy, and this has always been the chief means offered us by the Church for fulfilling towards the dead the great commandment of charity, for relieving our neighbour’s needs as though they were our own, on account of the supernatural bond which unites us all, in heaven, on earth and in purgatory, in Christ.


Masses for the dead are already spoken of in the 5th century, but the commemoration of all the faithful departed together on the day after All Saints was instituted in 998 by St Odilo, fourth abbot of the great Benedictine Abbey of Cluny. Cluny’s great influence lead to the speedy adoption of the custom throughout Christendom. Benedict XIV granted priests in Spain and Portugal and their overseas possessions the privilege of saying three Masses on this day; on August 10, 1915, Benedict XV extended it to priests everywhere*.


In Mass the priest offers God Christ’s blood, the price of our Redemption; Christ Himself, present under the apprearance of bread and wine, offers himself to his Father in the very act of his Redeeming Sacrifice. Consequently, as the Council of Trent declared**, “the souls in purgatory are helped by all the suffrages of the faithful, but especially by the sacrifice of the Mass”. Every day the Church prays for the dead; in the Canon of the Mass a special Memento is made, calling to mind all who have fallen asleep in the Lord, and praying that they may be granted a place of rest, light and peace; but today is especially given up to them, so that no soul in purgatory may be left without our spiritual assistance, and all may be prayed for together by their common Mother (St Augustine at Matins). At Mass to-day, let us join with the whole Church in asking God to grant remission of sins and everlasting rest to the dead, who can now do nothing for themselves. Let us also visit the cemeteries where their bodies rest*** until the day when Christ’s victory over sin and death is perfected in them and they rise again glorious and immortal (Ep. Of 1st Mass).


* By this same institution the Holy See granted a plenary indulgence toties quoties on the same conditions as on August 2, applicable to the souls of the departed on All Soul’s Day, to all those who visited a church between noon on All Saint’s and midnight on the following day and prayed for the intentions of the Sovereign Pontiff.


** Sessio XXII., cap. II.


*** The word cemetery comes from a Greek word meaning a place where one rests in sleep.

Feast of All Saints

Feast of All Saints

– November 1st

On May 13, 610, the pagan temple of Agrippa, called the Pantheon since its dedication to all the pagan gods under the Emperor Augustus, was consecrated as a Christian church by Pope Boniface IV, under the title of “our Lady and the Martyrs”, many of whose relics he brought there from the catacombs. The dedication later became more general as “our Lady and all the Saints”. Pope Gregory VII transferred the dedication feast of this church to November 1, on which day Pope Gregory IV had in 835 fixed the commemoration of all the Saints, previously celebrated on different days in different places. All Saint Day therefore commemorates Christ’s triumph over the false gods of the pagans, and the original dedication of the church accounts for the use in the Mass, on the feast as well as on the Vigil, of many texts from the liturgy of the martyrs.

The Epistle puts before us St John’s vision of heaven, the twelve thousand (twelve is a symbolic number signifying fullness) from every tribe of Israel and the numberless host from every nation, tribe, people and tongue, standing before the throne and the Lamb, clad in white robes, with palms in their hands. Christ, our Lady and the nine choirs of angels, the apostles and prophets, the martyrs in the crimson of their blood, the white-robed confessors and the choirs of chaste virgins form the majestic throng (Vespers hymn). All are there who here below followed Christ’s teaching: the poor in spirit, the meek, the afflicted, those who hungered and thirsted after justice, the merciful, the clean of heart of heart, peacemakers, those who suffered persecution for Christ; to all these Christ said: Rejoice, for a rich reward awaits you in heaven (Gospel, Comm.). Among these millions who served Christ faithfully on earth are some who were close to us, our relations and friends, our brethren in our parochial family: now they share in the glory of “the Lord, the King of kings, the Crown of all the Saints”. At Mass everything recalls this heavenly homeland we enter into communion with it: in the Preface we join in praise with the Angels; in the Communicantes we join in prayer with the Saints; our altar, where the Lamb of God is offered, is one with the heavenly altar where the lamb stands “upright, yet slain … in sacrifice”; it is the same priest, Christ, who offers himself unseen thereon and visibly in heaven.